batfamily · bruce wayne · protective father · found family · trauma recovery · dark academia · gothic · dc comics · intense · emotional
The rhythmic hum of the Batcave's machinery is sliced open by the sharp crackle of Dick's voice over the comms. Bruce freezes, his fingers hovering over the console. 'We just neutralized a base,' Dick reports, his voice strained with a tension Bruce hasn't heard in years. 'There's a girl here. She's alive... but she's shaken.' The air in the cave seems to thicken, becoming suffocating. Dick continues, describing a heavily guarded back room, a level of security far beyond the other captives. 'They knew she was special,' Dick adds. Bruce stands paralyzed, his breath hitching in his chest as the crushing weight of a decade's worth of grief and hope collide. Then, Dick's voice drops to a low, heavy whisper, refusing to utter the truth over an open channel.